Sibsagar District, 1908
Contents |
Sibsagar District
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Physical aspects
District in Eastern Bengal and Assam, lying between 25 49' and 27 16' N. and 93 3' and 95 22' E., with an area of 4,996 square miles. It is bounded on the east by Lakhim- pur: on the north by the Brahmaputra and Subansiri, which divide it from Lakhimpur and Darrang ; on the west by Nowgong ; and on the south by hills inhabited by Naga tribes. The eastern half of the Physical District consists of a wide well-cultivated plain aspects. stretching from the foot of the Naga Hills to the Brahmaputra; but west of the Dhansiri the forest- clad ranges of the MIKIR HILLS, which rise in places to an elevation of 4,500 feet, project into the valley. South of the Brahmaputra lies a belt of land 3 or 4 miles in width, which affords excellent grazing in the dry season, but is exposed to heavy inundations during the rains. Beyond this the level rises, and the central portion of the District presents a buccession of wide plains, producing rice, and dotted in every direction with the groves of bamboos and areca palms by which the houses of the villagers are concealed. Much of the high land in the centre and south was originally covered with tree forest, but this has been largely taken up by tea planters ; and neat bungalows and trim tea gardens are now a conspicuous feature in the scenery. Along some of the tributaries of the Brahmaputra the country is too low for cultiva- tion, and is covered with grass and reeds, while the foot of the hills is clothed with forest ; but, generally speaking, very little land in the plains is available for settlement, and over considerable areas the density of population exceeds 400 persons per square mile. The MAJULI, a large island which lies north of the main channel of the Brahmaputra, presents a very different appearance. The land lies low, the population is comparatively sparse, and extensive tracts are covered with high grass jungle and forest, which is rendered particularly beauti- ful by the luxuriant growth of the creeping cane.
The Brahmaputra flows through the northern portion of the District, and at the western end divides Sibsagar from Darrang. The principal tributaries on the south bank from east to west are the BURHI DIKING, which for part of its course divides Sibsagar from Lakhimpur, the DISANG, DIKHO, JHANZI, BHOGDAI or Disai, Kakadanga, and DHANSIRJ. All of these rivers flow in a northerly and westerly direction from the Naga Hills. The District contains no lakes of any importance.
The plain is of alluvial origin, and is composed of a mixture of clay and sand. West of the Disai there is a protrusion of the subsoil, which is a stiff clay, abounding in iron nodules. The Mikir Hills consist of gneiss, which towards the south is overlaid by sedimentary strata of Tertiary origin. These younger rocks consist of soft yellow sandstones, finely laminated grey clay shales, and nodular earthy lime- stones.
Except in the west, the proportion of forest land is comparatively small. Marsh lands are covered with high grass and reeds, the two most prominent kinds being ikra (Saccharum arundinaceum) and nal (Phragmites Roxburghii) ; but a large part of the District is under cultivation. The high land between the rice-fields is usually covered with short grass.
Wild animals are not common, except in the Mikir Hills and the marshy country at their foot, where elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, bison, tigers, leopards, bears, and various kinds of deer are found. In 1904, 6 persons and 990 cattle were killed by wild animals and rewards were paid for the destruction of 27 tigers and leopards. Small game include partridges, pheasants, jungle fowl, ducks, geese, and snipe.
The climate, though damp, is comparatively cool and is healthy for both Europeans and natives. During the winter months the sun has little effect, as fogs often hang over the plains till a late hour, and in January the mean temperature in Sibsagar is less than 60. In July it rises to 84, and the atmosphere is overcharged with moisture, and therefore oppressive.
In the plains, the average annual rainfall varies from So inches in the west to 95 near the Lakhimpur border. The supply of rain is thus always abundant, and flood is a more serious obstacle to cultiva- tion than drought. Hailstorms occasionally do damage, especially to the tea gardens. The great earthquake of June 12, 1897, was distinctly felt in Sibsagar, but in comparison with Lower Assam the amount of damage done was small
History
About the eleventh century the dominant power in the eastern portion of the District was the Chutiya king, who ruled over a tribe of Bodo origin, which is believed to have entered Assam from the north-east and to have overthrown a Hindu Pal dynasty reigning at Sadiya. In the south there were scattered tribes of Morans, and the west was within the sphere of influence of the Kachari king at Dimapur. In 1228 the Ahoms, a Shan tribe from the kingdom of Pong, crossed the Patkai range and established themselves in the south-east of Sibsagar. These foreigners gradually consolidated their power, conquered the Chutiyas, and by the end of the fifteenth century had become the dominant tribe in Upper Assam. The Kacharis were next defeated ; and about the middle of the sixteenth century the Ahom capital was established at Gargaon, the modern NAZIRA, 9 miles south-east of Sibsagar town. It was captured by Mir Jumla in 1662 ; but during the rains the Muhammadan force melted away, and by the end of the seventeenth century the Ahoms had succeeded in making themselves masters of the whole of the Brah- maputra Valley above the town of Goalpara. About this time the seat of government was shifted to Rangpur, near the modern town of Sibsagar, which is said to have been founded by Rudra Singh, the greatest of the Ahom Rajas, in 1699. The District at this time appears to have been very prosperous. There was a strong govern- ment, and justice seems to have been administered in a fairly liberal manner, though the death penalty, when inflicted, took savage forms, and no mercy was shown to rebels or their families. Buchanan- Hamilton, writing in 1804, reported that three-fourths of the whole area of Upper Assam south of the Brahmaputra was under cultivation, and the system of compulsory labour which prevailed enabled the Raja to construct numerous good roads, and large embankments which kept the flood- water off the fields. At the same time the extreme aversion which the Assamese now have to all forms of labour for the state, and the rapidity with which, as soon as Assam passed into the hands of the British, they abandoned the various trades imposed upon them by their former rulers, shows that the Ahom system, though tending to develop the material prosperity of the cduntry, was far from acceptable to the mass of the people. Rangpur continued to be the capital till after the accession of Gaurinath Singh in 1780. This prince was driven from his palace by a rising of the Moamarias, a powerful religious sect, and established himself first at Jorhat and afterwards at Gauhati. Then ensued a period of extreme misery. The Moamarias ravaged the country on their way to Gauhati \ and, after their defeat by the British troops in 1793, tne Ahom prime minister laid waste the whole of the province north of the Dikho river. A fierce struggle broke out between the -different pretenders to the crown, one of whom called in the Burmans to his aid. The Burmans established themselves in the province, and were only expelled by the British in 1825, after they had been guilty of the utmost barbarity. The Brahmaputra Valley was then incorporated with the territories of the East India Company; but in 1833 Upper Assam, including the District of Sib- sagar, was handed over to the Ahom Raja, Purandar Singh. This prince, however, proved incapable of carrying out the duties entrusted to him, and in 1838 the District was placed under the direct manage- ment of British officers. Since that date its history has been one of peaceful progress. The native gentry were, however, impoverished by the abolition of the offices they had formerly enjoyed, and by the libera- tion of their slaves, and they had some grounds for feeling discontented with British rule. In 1857 one of them named Mani Ram Datta, who had been the chief revenue authority under Raja Purandar Singh, engaged in treasonable correspondence with the young Raja, Kandar- peswar Singh, who was residing at Jorhat, and other disaffected persons. Mani Ram was, however, convicted and hanged, and all tendencies to rebellion were thus nipped in the bud.
The District contains several enormous tanks, the largest of which are those at Sibsagar, Rudrasagar, Jaysagar, and Gaunsagar. These tanks were made by the Ahom Rajas in the eighteenth century, and in most cases have fine brick temples standing on the broad banks by which they are surrounded. In the south-west corner of Sibsagar the ruins of the Kachari capital at DIMAPUR lie buried in dense jungle.
Population
The population at the last four enumerations was: (1872) 317,799, (1881) 392,545, (1891) 480,659, and (1901) 597,969. The enormous increase of 88 per cent., which took place in the twenty-nine years, was due partly to the fact that Sibsagar, unlike Lower and Central Assam, has been healthy, so that the indigenous population increased instead of dying out, but even more to the importation of a large number of garden coolies. The District is divided into three subdivisions SIBSAGAR, JORHAT, and .GOLAGHAT with head-quarters at the towns of the same name, and contains 2,109 villages.
About 89 per cent, of the population are Hindus, 4 per cent, Muhammadans, and 7 per cent. Animistic tribes. The tea industry has introduced a large number of foreigners into the District, and one- fourth of the persons enumerated there in 1901 had been born in other Piovinces. Assamese was spoken by only 59 per cent, of the popula- tion, while 19 per cent, spoke Bengali and 6 per cent. Hindi. Immi- gration has also caused a great disparity between the sexes, there being only 886 women to every 1,000 men.
As is natural, the Ahoms (111,100) are the most numerous caste, but there are also a large number of Chutiyas (57,000), The higher Hindu castes of Lower Assam are not so strongly represented ; there were only 36,600 Kalitas in 1901, and even fewer Kewats and Kochs. The priestly caste naturally tend to congregate round the Ahoin capitals, and Brahmans at the last Census numbered 14,400. The principal foreign cooly castes were Santals (19,300), Bhuiyas (16,800), and Mundas (16,200). The chief hill tribes are Miklrs (22,900) and Miris (17,600), though all of the latter are settled in the plains, and many of them, in name at any rate, have attorned to Hinduism. Members of European and allied races numbered 356 in 1901. The District is entirely rural, and no less than 91 per cent, of the popu- lation in 1901 were supported by agriculture, a high proportion even for Assam.
There is a branch of the American Baptist Mission at Sibsagar, and about one-half of the native Christians (2,113) in 1901 were members of that sect.
Agriculture
The soil varies from pure sand to an absolutely stiff clay, but is largely composed of loam suitable for the growth of rice. In places this loam has lost some of its fertility, owing to con- tinuous cultivation ; but the character of the rice crop depends more on the level of the land and the rainfall than on the constituents of the mud puddle in which it is planted. The Most of the unsettled waste land lies in the Mikir Hills or in the marshes along the Brahmaputra, or is permanently covered with water ; and, except in the Dhansiri valley, which is far from healthy, the area of unsettled waste suited for permanent cultivation is comparatively small. Rice is the staple food-crop, and in 1903-4 covered 540 square miles, or 64 per cent, of the total cultivated area. More than 90 per cent, of the rice land is usually under sdli^ or transplanted winter rice, and dhu, or summer nee, is only grown on the Majuli and in the marshes near the Brahmaputra. Mustard and pulse, sown on land from which a crop of ahu has been taken, covered 21,000 and 16,000 acres respectively in 1903-4. Sugar-cane (7,000 acres) is largely grown on the high land near Golaghat. Garden crops, which include tobacco, vegetables, pepper,/^ or betel-leaf, and areca-nut, are a source of considerable profit to the villagers. In the hills the Miklrs raise rice, chillieSj cotton, tobacco, and other crops, but no statistics of cultivated area are prepared.
Sibsagar has long been a great centre of "the tea industry. By 1852 the Assam Company had opened fifteen factories with 2,500 acres under cultivation, which yielded an out-turn of 267,000 Ib. of manu- factured tea. The industry soon recovered after the crisis of 1866, and since that time has been steadily increasing in importance. In 1904 there were 159 gardens in the District with 79,251 acres under cultivation, which yielded over 30,000,000 Ib. of manufactured tea and gave employment to 182 Europeans and 94,061 natives, nearly all of whom had been brought at great expense from other parts of India. The most important companies are the Assam Company, with head- quarters at Nazira, about 9 miles south-east of Sibsagar; the Jorhat Company, with head-quarters at Cinnamara, 4 miles from Jorhat ; and the Brahmaputra Company, with head-quarters at Neghereting, the port for Golaghat.
Apart from tea, the District has witnessed a steady increase of culti- vation, and between 1891 and 1901 the area settled at full rates increased by 18 per cent. Little attempt has, however, been made to introduce new varieties of crops or to improve upon old methods. The harvests are regular, the cultivators fairly well-to-do, and agricul- tural loans are hardly ever made by Government.
As in the rest of the Assam Valley, the cattle are poor. The buffaloes are, however, much finer animals than those imported from Bengal.
The heavy rainfall renders artificial irrigation unnecessary, and flood rather than drought is the principal obstacle to agriculture. A con- siderable area of land is rendered unfit for permanent cultivation by the spill-water of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, and in the time of the Ahom Rajas most of these rivers were enclosed in carefully protected embankments. On the abolition of the system of compulsory labour, these works fell into decay. The reconstruction of embank- ments along sections of the Dihing, Disang, Dikho, and Darika rivers has, however, been taken in hand.
Forests
The ' reserved ' forests of Sibsagar covered an area of 876 square miles in 1903-4, nearly nine-tenths of which are situated in the Mikir Hills and the valley of the Dhansiri. They include the great Nambar forest, which, with the adjoining Reserves, extends over 618 square miles, and was the first area to be 'reserved' in Assam. It was constituted as far back as 1873, Du t little timber was extracted from it prior to the construction of the Assam- Bengal Railway. The area of ' unclassed ' state forest, or Government waste land, is 3,091 square miles; but this includes the Mikir Hills, part of which are under cultivation, and large tracts of land practically destitute of trees. There is little trade in timber in Sibsagar, and the out-turn from the * unclassed' forests largely exceeds that from the Reserves. The most valuable timber trees are nahor (Mesua ferrea), ajhar (Lagerstroemia Flos Reginae\ sam (Artocarpus Chaplasha), tita sapa (Michelia Champaca\ and uriam (Bischqfia jayamca).
Coal of inferior quality and limestone are found in the Mikir Hills, The hills to the south contain three coal-fields known as the Nazira, Jhanzi, and Disai. Petroleum is found in the two former fields ; and all of them have large deposits of clay ironstone, and impure limonitc containing iron ore. Under native rule this iron was extensively worked, and salt was manufactuied from springs which exist in the coal-measures. Gold was also washed from almost all the rivers. At the present day a little coal is mined by the Assam Company at Telpum on the Dikho river, and by the Singlo Company near Safrai ; but the whole of the output is used in the tea factories of these two companies, and none is sold.
Trade and communication
The manufactures of the District, apart from tea, are of little impor- tance. Hardly a house is without its loom, on which the women weave cotton and silk cloths, chiefly, however, for home use and not for sale. Silk is obtained from three kinds of worms, en (Aitacus ridni\ mugd (Antheraea assama), and pat (Bombyx textor). the en worm is usually fed on the castor-oil plant (Ridnus communis\ the muga on the sum-tree (Machilus odoratissima)^ and the pat on the mulberry-tree (Morus indica]. A fine white kind of thread, which is much valued", is obtained by feeding the mugd worm on the chapa (Magnolia Griffithii] and the mezankuri (Tetranthera polyantha).- Silk cloth is still very largely worn by men and women alike, but is being gradually ousted by European cotton goods. Mugd silk is produced in large quantities, but pat is comparatively rare. Brass vessels are usually hammered out by Morias, a degraded caste of Muhammadans ; those made of bell- metal are cast by Assamese Hindus. Neither metal nor earthen vessels are, however, produced in sufficient quantities to meet the local demand, and a further supply is imported from Bengal. The jewellery consists of lockets, ear-rings, and bracelets, which are often tastefully enamelled and set with garnets or false rubies. The goldsmiths are a degraded section of the Kalita caste, most of whom live in the neighbourhood of Jorhat. Mustard oil and raw molasses are also manufactured, but not on any very extensive scale. European capital is invested in two saw-mills, which in 1904 employed in workmen. The out-turn consists almost entirely of tea boxes.
The exports of the District include cotton, mustard-seed, canes, and hides ; but the only article of any importance is tea. The chief imports are rice, gram, and other kinds of grain, piece-goods, salt, kerosene and other oils, and iron and hardware. The Brahmaputra and the Assam- Bengal Railway are the main channels of external trade. The chief centres of commerce are the three subdivisional towns, but the tea industry tends to decentralization. On every garden there is a shop, where the cooly can purchase almost everything that he requires ; and local supplies are obtained from the numerous weekly markets held in different parts of the District. The most important of these are at NAZIRA, about 9 miles south-east of Sibsagar, and at Mariani and Titabar in the Jorhat subdivision. The Assamese themselves have no taste for business, and almost the whole of the external trade is in the hands of Marwari merchants, known as Kayahs, who amass considerable wealth. Each town also contains a few shops, where fur- niture, hardware, and haberdashery are sold by Muhammadan traders from Bengal. Cotton is grown by the Mlkirs and Nagas, who barter it for salt and other commodities with the Marwaris of Golaghat.
The Assam-Bengal Railway runs through the southern part of the District from Dimapur to Barhat, and at Mariani and Titabar meets a light railway, which runs from those places, via Jorhat, to Kakilamukh on the Brahmaputra. A daily service of passenger steamers and a large fleet of cargo boats, owned and managed hy the India General Steam Navigation Company and the Rivers Steam Navigation Company, ply on the Brahmaputra between Goalundo and Dibrugarh. Disangmukh is the port for Sibsagar, Kakilamukh for Jorhat, and Neghereting for Golaghat ; but steamers also call at the mouths of the Dihing, Dikho, Jhanzi, and Dhansiri. In the rains feeder vessels go up the Dikho to Santak, up the Disang to Safrai, and up the Dhansiri to Golaghat.
The principal roads are the trunk road, which runs for no miles through the District, passing through Jorhat and Sibsagar, and the Dhodar All, which leaves the trunk road at Kamargaon in the Golaghat subdivision, and runs through the south-east of the District into Lakh- impur. Numerous branch roads, many of which follow the lines of the alls, or old embankments constructed by forced labour under the Ahom kings, run from north to south and connect the Dhodar All and the trunk road, North of the Brahmaputra there is only one road, which crosses the Majuli from Kamalabari to Garamur. In 1903-4, 237 miles of unmetalled roads were maintained by the Public Works department and 705 miles by the local boards. Most of these roads are bridged throughout, and ferries are maintained only over the larger rivers.
Administration
For general administrative purposes the District is divided into three subdivisions : SIBSAGAR, which is under the immediate charge of the Deputy-Commissioner ; and JORHAT and GOLAGHAT, are usua i]y entrusted to European magistrates. The transfer of the head-quarters of the District from Sibsagar to Jorhat has, however, recently been sanctioned. The staff includes six Assistant Magistrates, two of whom are stationed at Jorhat and two at Golaghat, and a Forest officer.
The Deputy-Commissioner has the powers of a Sub-Judge, and the Assistant Magistrates exercise jurisdiction as Munsifs. Appeals, both civil and criminal, lie to the Judge of the Assam Valley ; but the chief appellate authority is the High Court at Calcutta. The people are, as a whole, law-abiding, and there is not much serious crime. In the Mikir Hills and in the tract recently transferred from the Naga Hills District a special form of procedure is in force. The High Court has no jurisdiction, and the Deputy-Commissioner exercises the powers of life and death subject to confirmation by the Chief Commissioner.
The land revenue system does not differ materially from that in force in the rest of Assam proper, which is described in the article on ASSAM. The settlement is ryotwari, and is liable to periodical revision. Mustard and summer rice are seldom grown on the same land for more than three years in succession, and the villagers are allowed to resign their holdings and take up new plots of land on giving notice to the revenue authorities. In 1903-4, 17,000 acres of land were so resigned and about 32,000 acres of new land taken up- Fresh leases are issued every year for this shifting cultivation, and a large staff of mandate is maintained to measure new land, test appli- cations for relinquishment, and keep the record up to date. In the Mikir Hills the villagers pay a tax of Rs. 3 per house, irrespective of the area brought under cultivation. The District was last settled in 1893, and the average assessment per settled acre assessed at full rates in 1903-4 was Rs. 2-10-2 (maximum Rs. 4-2, minimum Rs. i-i i). A resettlement is now in progress.
Outside the station of Sibsagar and the Jorhat and Golaghat unions, the local affairs of each subdivision are managed by a board presided over by the Deputy-Commissioner or the Subdivisional officer. The presence of a strong European element on these boards, elected by the planting community, lends to them a considerable degree of vitality. The total expenditure in 1903-4 amounted to Rs. 1,82,000, about three-fifths of which was laid out on public works. Nearly the whole of the income is derived from local rates, supplemented by a grant from Provincial revenues.
For the purposes of the prevention and detection of crime, the District is divided into ten investigating centres, and the civil police force consisted in 1904 of 50 officers and 278 men. There are no rural police, their duties being discharged by the village headmen, In addition to the District jail at Sibsagar, subsidiary jails are main- tained at Jorhat and Golaghat, with accommodation for 56 males and 7 females.
Education has made more progress in Sibsagar than in most Dis- tricts of the Assam Valley. The number of pupils under instruction in 1880-1, 1890-1, 1900-1, and 1903-4 was 4,547, 8,798, 12,063, and 12,451 respectively \ and the number of pupils in the last year was more than three times the number twenty-nine years before. At the Census of 1901, 3-4 per cent, of the population (6-1 males and 0*4 females) were returned as literate. The District contained 302 primary and 15 secondary schools and one special school in 1903-4. The number of female scholars was 236. The great majority ot the pupils are in primary classes. Of the male population of school- going age 21 per cent, were in the primary stage of instruction, and of the female population of the same age less than one per cent. The total expenditure on education in 1903-4 was Rs. i ,01,000, of which Rs. 35,000 was derived from fees. About 34 per cent, of the direct expenditure was devoted to primary schools.
The District possesses 3 hospitals and 4 dispensaries, with accom- modation for 58 in-patients. In 1904 the number of cases treated was 89,000, of which 600 were in-patients, and 1,000 operations were performed. The expenditure was Rs. 15,000, half of which was met from local and municipal funds.
In 1903-4, 46 per 1,000 of the population were successfully vac- cinated, which is a little above the proportion for the Province as a whole. Vaccination is compulsory only in the towns of Sibsagar, Jorhat, and Golaghat.
[Sir W. W. Hunter, A Statistical Account of Assam, vol. i (1879); L. J. Kershaw, Assessment Reports, Central Golaghat, Western Gold- ghat, Northern Jorhat, Central Jorhat, and Southern Jorhat Group (1905); B. C. Allen, District Gazetteer (1906).]
